token-limit

Usage metering and cost enforcement for LLM calls, built for multi-tenant B2B applications.
One call instruments every OpenAI, Anthropic, Google AI, DeepSeek, and OpenRouter request — no changes required in your LLM call sites.

---

Installation

Install the base package, then add extras only for the providers you use:

# Core package (no provider SDKs included)
pip install token-limit

# With specific provider support
pip install token-limit[openai]      # OpenAI + DeepSeek + OpenRouter
pip install token-limit[anthropic]   # Anthropic Claude
pip install token-limit[google]      # Google AI (Gemini)

# Everything at once
pip install token-limit[all]

Note: Provider extras install the corresponding official SDK as a dependency (openai, anthropic, google-genai). If you already have these SDKs pinned in your project, installing the extras is still safe — they will not downgrade your existing versions.

---

How it works

token-limit monkey-patches the official provider SDKs at startup. Every LLM call your application makes is automatically intercepted, token usage is extracted from the response, and a lightweight event is queued and batched to your backend ingest endpoint in the background. Your LLM calls are never blocked or slowed down.

Your code  →  [patched SDK]  →  LLM provider
                    ↓
              LLMEvent captured
                    ↓
              EventQueue (in-memory, daemon thread)
                    ↓  (every 5s or 50 events)
              POST /v1/ingest  →  Your backend  →  Dashboard

---

1. Initialize once at application startup

from token_limit import Meter, MeterConfig

meter = Meter(MeterConfig(
    api_key="sk-...", # Your TokenLimit API key
))

meter.patch_all()  # patches OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, DeepSeek — all at once

2. Tag requests per tenant

Use the context manager to scope a block of LLM calls to a tenant. Thread-safe and async-safe via contextvars — concurrent requests with different tenants are fully isolated.

with meter.for_tenant("user5"):
    try:
        response = client.chat.completions.create(
            model="gpt-4o-mini",
            messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}],
        )
    except LimitExceededException:
        show_upgrade_message()

For middleware or request handlers where a context manager isn't convenient:

meter.set_tenant(request.tenant_id)  # sets for current thread/async task

---

Supported providers

Provider	What gets patched	Tokens captured
OpenAI	chat.completions.create, responses.create, completions.create (legacy), embeddings.create, audio.transcriptions.create, audio.translations.create, audio.speech.create, images.generate, images.edit — all sync + async	input, output, cached, plus endpoint-specific fields (character count, image dimensions, audio duration)
Anthropic	messages.Messages.create (sync + async)	input, output, cached (cache read), cache_creation
Google AI	Models.generate_content, Models.generate_content_stream, AsyncModels.generate_content, AsyncModels.generate_content_stream — all via google.genai	input, output, total, cached
DeepSeek	chat.completions.create, fim.completions.create, beta.chat.completions.create — sync + async; covers both first-party deepseek SDK and openai client pointed at api.deepseek.com	input, output, cached (cache hit), cache_miss, reasoning (deepseek-reasoner)
OpenRouter	chat.completions.create on registered client instances — sync + async, streaming and non-streaming	input, output, cached, cost_usd (when billing header enabled), upstream_provider

All patches are installed/uninstalled cleanly — original methods are always restored on unpatch_all() or process exit.

---

Cost enforcement

Spend limits are configured per tenant in USD and enforced on every intercepted LLM call.

# Per-month limit (default)
meter.set_limit("tenant-id-456", limit_usd=50.00)

# Per-day limit
meter.set_limit("tenant-id-456", limit_usd=5.00, frequency="per_day")

When a tenant reaches its configured limit, the next intercepted LLM call raises LimitExceededException before any API traffic is sent. Handle it and show an upgrade prompt:

with meter.for_tenant("acme-corp"):
    try:
        response = client.chat.completions.create(...)
    except LimitExceededException:
        return {"detail": "upgrade_plan"}

set_limit() immediately invalidates the local cache for that tenant so the new threshold is honored on the very next call, without waiting for the TTL to expire.

Limit check caching. check_limit() and async_check_limit() are called on every patched SDK call. Results are cached per tenant for limit_check_cache_ttl seconds (default 5 s) to avoid a network round-trip on every LLM call. A local token trip-wire also catches runaway bursts within the TTL window without waiting for the next backend sync.

---

OpenAI patch details

Patches SDK methods at the class level, so every openai.OpenAI / openai.AsyncOpenAI client created before or after patching is automatically covered.

Patched surfaces

chat.completions.create (sync + async)
ChatCompletions for all models. Handles stream=True transparently: forces stream_options={"include_usage": True} so the final chunk carries a usage summary, then proxies the iterator to the caller while capturing that summary in a finally block.
Fields: input_tokens, output_tokens, total_tokens, cached_tokens, request_id, model, stream, duration_ms.

responses.create (sync + async, openai >= 1.30)
Responses API. Also captures five image-billing dimensions when the image_generation tool is active, and image_count for audit.
Fields: input_tokens, output_tokens, total_tokens, cached_tokens, image billing dimensions, image_count.

completions.create (legacy /v1/completions, sync + async)
Legacy text-completion endpoint for models such as gpt-3.5-turbo-instruct. Streaming handled identically to chat completions.
Fields: input_tokens, output_tokens, total_tokens, model, stream, duration_ms.

embeddings.create (sync + async)
Text-embedding endpoint (text-embedding-3-*, ada-002, etc.). output_tokens is always 0.
Fields: input_tokens, output_tokens (0), total_tokens, model, duration_ms.

audio.transcriptions.create (sync + async)
Whisper STT. Two billing modes handled automatically:

• Per-minute models (whisper-1): reads response.duration (requires response_format="verbose_json"; emits a warning if omitted).
• Per-token models (gpt-4o-transcribe, gpt-4o-mini-transcribe): reads usage.input_tokens / usage.output_tokens.

Fields: input_tokens, output_tokens, audio_input_tokens, audio_output_tokens, duration_seconds, duration_unavailable, model, duration_ms.

audio.translations.create (sync + async)
Whisper translation. Identical billing logic to audio.transcriptions; endpoint tag differs.

audio.speech.create (TTS, sync + async)
Two billing modes:

• Per-character models (tts-1, tts-1-hd): no usage object; character_count derived from the caller's input kwarg.
• Per-token models (gpt-4o-mini-tts): reads usage.input_tokens / usage.output_tokens; sets character_count=0 to prevent double-billing.

Fields: input_tokens, output_tokens, character_count, model, duration_ms.

images.generate and images.edit (sync + async)
Image generation and editing for gpt-image-* models. Captures five token billing dimensions from usage.input_tokens_details and usage.output_tokens, plus image_count.
Fields: input_text_tokens, cached_input_text_tokens, input_image_tokens, cached_input_image_tokens, output_image_tokens, total_tokens, image_count.

Not patched (OpenAI)

• moderations.create — free endpoint, no per-token cost.
• fine_tuning.jobs.* — billed on a separate training rate; not real-time.
• beta.assistants.* / beta.threads.* / beta.runs.* — usage only available after async run completion; not yet supported.
• uploads.* / beta.vector_stores / files — storage-billed, not token-billed.
• realtime.* — persistent WebSocket; no discrete .create() to wrap.
• audio.transcriptions.create with stream=True — streaming transcription path not yet captured.

---

Anthropic patch details

Patches Messages.create and AsyncMessages.create at the class level, so all anthropic.Anthropic / anthropic.AsyncAnthropic clients created before or after patching are automatically covered.

Patched surfaces

messages.Messages.create (sync) and messages.AsyncMessages.create (async)
Claude chat/completion for all claude-* models. Both stream=False (default) and stream=True are handled. For streaming, a helper proxies the iterator unchanged while accumulating usage across events (message_start → input tokens; message_delta → output + cache tokens).
Fields: input_tokens, output_tokens, total_tokens, cached_tokens (cache read hits), cache_creation_tokens (cache write), request_id, model, stream, duration_ms, tenant_id, error, input_tokens_details (SDK >= 0.26, model-dependent).

Not patched (Anthropic)

• beta.messages.batches.* — asynchronous batch completion; results fetched separately from submission. Not yet supported.
• Embeddings — Anthropic does not offer a text-embedding API.
• Audio/TTS — Anthropic does not offer speech endpoints.
• Image generation — Claude is vision-input only; image tokens are already counted inside input_tokens.

---

Google AI patch details

Patches four methods at the class level on google.genai.models.Models and google.genai.models.AsyncModels. Unlike OpenAI, the google.genai SDK exposes streaming as a separate method rather than a stream=True flag.

Patched surfaces

Models.generate_content (sync, non-streaming)
Usage read from response.usage_metadata directly after the call returns.

Models.generate_content_stream (sync, streaming)
Returns a synchronous iterator of GenerateContentResponse chunks. Usage is only present on the last chunk; the helper tracks last_chunk across the full iteration and reads its usage_metadata in a finally block.

AsyncModels.generate_content (async, non-streaming)
Awaits meter.async_check_limit() to avoid blocking the event loop.

AsyncModels.generate_content_stream (async, streaming)
Handles both coroutine-returning and direct async-iterator forms via inspect.isawaitable.

Fields (all four surfaces): input_tokens (prompt_token_count), output_tokens (candidates_token_count, includes thinking tokens on the direct Gemini API), total_tokens (read from response, not derived), cached_tokens (cached_content_token_count), stream, request_id, duration_ms, tenant_id, error.

Not patched (Google AI)

• Vertex AI SDK (google.cloud.aiplatform) — separate SDK, not yet supported.
• models.embed_content / models.embed_content_batch — not yet supported.
• models.generate_images / models.upscale_image — billed per image, not per token.
• models.generate_videos — billed per second of output, not yet supported.
• live.* — WebSocket-based session; no discrete call to wrap.

---

DeepSeek patch details

Covers both integration paths: the first-party deepseek package and an openai client pointed at api.deepseek.com. Both paths are attempted independently — a failure in one does not prevent the other from being installed.

Patched surfaces

chat.completions.create (sync + async)
Standard chat completions. Streaming handled identically to OpenAI: forces stream_options={"include_usage": True} and captures usage from the final chunk.

fim.completions.create (sync + async)
DeepSeek-specific fill-in-middle (FIM) endpoint. Records fim_prefix (from kwargs["prompt"] or kwargs["prefix"]) and fim_suffix alongside standard token counts.

beta.chat.completions.create (sync + async)
Beta chat namespace alias present in SDK >= 1.x; uses the same extractor as the main chat surface.

DeepSeek-specific fields

Event field	Source
cached_tokens	usage.prompt_cache_hit_tokens
cache_miss_tokens	usage.prompt_cache_miss_tokens
reasoning_tokens	usage.completion_tokens_details.reasoning_tokens (deepseek-reasoner only)
fim_prefix	kwargs["prompt"] or kwargs["prefix"]
fim_suffix	kwargs["suffix"]

Not patched (DeepSeek)

• models.list — metadata endpoint, no token cost.
• files.* — file upload/management, not billed per token.

---

OpenRouter patch details

OpenRouter exposes an OpenAI-compatible REST API, so developers typically point a standard openai.OpenAI (or AsyncOpenAI) client at https://openrouter.ai/api/v1. Unlike the other providers, OpenRouter is patched at the instance level rather than the class level — only the specific client instances you register are instrumented, leaving any other OpenAI clients untouched.

Registration

# Pattern 1 — sync factory (recommended)
client = meter.openrouter_client(api_key="sk-or-v1-...")

# Pattern 2 — async factory
client = meter.async_openrouter_client(api_key="sk-or-v1-...")

# Pattern 3 — register an existing client
meter.register_openrouter_client(existing_client)

# Pattern 4 — fully manual
meter.track_manually(provider="openrouter", model="...", input_tokens=..., output_tokens=...)

Patched surfaces

chat.completions.create (sync + async, on registered instances only)
Streaming handled identically to OpenAI: stream_options={"include_usage": True} is injected automatically so the final chunk carries usage. The wrapper is installed directly on client.chat.completions.create and is guarded against double-patching.

OpenRouter-specific fields

Event field	Source
upstream_provider	Portion before / in the model string, e.g. "anthropic" from "anthropic/claude-3-5-sonnet"
cost_usd	usage.cost — actual USD cost when the caller passes X-Or-Billing: true

Fields (all calls): input_tokens (usage.prompt_tokens), output_tokens (usage.completion_tokens), total_tokens, cached_tokens (usage.prompt_tokens_details.cached_tokens), cost_usd, upstream_provider, model, stream, request_id, duration_ms, tenant_id.

---

Configuration reference

All configuration lives in MeterConfig, passed once at startup:

from token_limit import Meter, MeterConfig

meter = Meter(MeterConfig(
    # Required
    api_key="your-api-key",       # authenticates event ingest and limit checks
    url="https://...",             # POST endpoint that receives event batches

    # Batching — tune for your traffic volume
    flush_interval=5.0,           # seconds between background flushes
    max_batch_size=50,            # flush early when queue reaches this size
    max_queue_size=1000,          # drop oldest events if queue overflows

    # Limit checks
    limit_check_cache_ttl=5.0,   # seconds a check_limit() result is cached per tenant

    # Behaviour
    debug=False,                  # log every captured event to stdout
    raise_on_error=False,         # re-raise exceptions from within patches

    # Hooks
    on_event=None,                # Callable[[LLMEvent], None] — called after every capture
    on_flush_error=None,          # Callable[[Exception], None] — called on send failure

    # Which providers to patch (default = all four built-ins)
    patches=["openai", "anthropic", "langchain", "google"],
))

---

Event shape

Every captured call produces an LLMEvent. Fields are sourced directly from types.py:

@dataclass
class LLMEvent:
    # identity
    event_id: str                        # UUID, auto-generated
    tenant_id: str                       # set via for_tenant() or set_tenant()
    session_id: Optional[str]

    # provider / model
    provider: str                        # "openai" | "anthropic" | "google" | "deepseek" | "openrouter"
    model: str                           # e.g. "gpt-4o", "claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022"
    endpoint: str                        # e.g. "chat.completions", "messages", "fim.completions"

    # text token usage
    input_tokens: int
    output_tokens: int
    total_tokens: int
    cached_tokens: int                   # OpenAI: sub-field of input_tokens
                                         # Anthropic/Google: separate pool, not in input_tokens

    # latency
    duration_ms: float                   # wall-clock time of the LLM call
    timestamp: float                     # unix timestamp of capture

    # request metadata
    request_id: Optional[str]            # x-request-id from provider response headers
    stream: bool
    error: Optional[str]                 # set if the LLM call raised an exception

    # audio (transcription / translation)
    duration_seconds: Optional[float]    # per-minute path (whisper-1, verbose_json only)
    audio_input_tokens: Optional[int]    # per-token path (gpt-4o-transcribe etc.)
    audio_output_tokens: Optional[int]

    # speech / TTS
    character_count: Optional[int]       # per-character path (tts-1, tts-1-hd)

    # images (gpt-image-* models)
    input_text_tokens: Optional[int]           # text prompt tokens
    cached_input_text_tokens: Optional[int]
    input_image_tokens: Optional[int]          # reference-image tokens (edit only)
    cached_input_image_tokens: Optional[int]
    output_image_tokens: Optional[int]         # generated-image tokens
    image_count: Optional[int]                 # number of images returned (audit only)

    # extras
    tags: dict                           # arbitrary metadata you can attach

All Optional fields are omitted from to_dict() when None, keeping ingest payloads lean.

---

Advanced usage

Selective patching

# Specify providers in MeterConfig
meter = Meter(MeterConfig(
    api_key="...",
    url="...",
    patches=["openai", "anthropic"],  # skip google and deepseek
))
meter.patch_all()

# Or patch / unpatch one provider at a time
meter.patch("deepseek")
meter.unpatch("deepseek")

# Unpatch everything and restore original SDK methods
meter.unpatch_all()

Use as a context manager

Meter supports the context manager protocol — __exit__ calls unpatch_all() and shuts down the background flush queue automatically:

with Meter(MeterConfig(api_key="...", url="...")).patch_all() as meter:
    with meter.for_tenant("acme-corp"):
        client.chat.completions.create(...)
# all patches restored, queue flushed on exit

Manual tracking

For providers not yet patched, or custom logic:

meter.track_manually(
    provider="cohere",
    model="command-r-plus",
    input_tokens=512,
    output_tokens=128,
    tenant_id="acme-corp",
)

Any extra keyword arguments are passed through as event fields (unknown fields are dropped with a debug log when debug=True).

Event hook — real-time logging or custom logic

def my_hook(event: LLMEvent) -> None:
    print(f"[{event.tenant_id}] {event.model}: {event.total_tokens} tokens")

meter = Meter(MeterConfig(
    api_key="...",
    url="...",
    on_event=my_hook,
))

Flush error handling

def on_flush_error(exc: Exception) -> None:
    sentry_sdk.capture_exception(exc)

meter = Meter(MeterConfig(
    api_key="...",
    url="...",
    on_flush_error=on_flush_error,
))

Force a flush

# Useful at the end of a batch job or CLI script
meter._queue.flush_now()

---

Adding a custom provider patch

All provider patches inherit from BasePatch. Implement _install and an extractor function, then register in PATCH_REGISTRY:

from token_limit.patches._base import BasePatch
from token_limit.patches import PATCH_REGISTRY

def _extract(response, args, kwargs, error):
    return {
        "provider": "cohere",
        "endpoint": "chat",
        "model": kwargs.get("model", ""),
        "input_tokens": getattr(response, "meta", {}).get("billed_units", {}).get("input_tokens", 0),
        "output_tokens": getattr(response, "meta", {}).get("billed_units", {}).get("output_tokens", 0),
    }

class CoherePatch(BasePatch):
    name = "cohere"

    def _install(self):
        import cohere
        self._swap(
            cohere.Client, "chat",
            self._make_sync_wrapper(cohere.Client.chat, _extract),
        )

PATCH_REGISTRY["cohere"] = CoherePatch

meter.patch("cohere")

---

Project structure

token_limit/
├── __init__.py              ← public API: Meter, MeterConfig, LLMEvent
├── meter.py                 ← Meter class (patch_all, for_tenant, set_limit)
├── config.py                ← MeterConfig dataclass
├── types.py                 ← LLMEvent dataclass
├── exceptions.py            ← LimitExceededException exception class
├── patches/
│   ├── _base.py             ← BasePatch ABC + sync/async wrapper factories
│   ├── openai_patch.py
│   ├── anthropic_patch.py
│   ├── google_patch.py
│   ├── deepseek_patch.py
│   └── openrouter_patch.py
└── transport/
    ├── queue.py             ← thread-safe EventQueue with background flush
    └── http_client.py       ← gzip POST, auto-selects httpx/requests/urllib

---

License

Business Source License 1.1